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Imagine asking Sir Alex Ferguson if he considered himself detrimental to Manchester United’s chances. Or Arsène Wenger if he was undermining Arsenal. Well, that is where we were at with Nick Faldo yesterday: still trying to work out if he is the shrewd brain of Europe’s Ryder Cup campaign or the big ego who could even do his team some harm.

There are those who would say that to argue either way is to overstate the importance of the captaincy, and they may be right. Ian Woosnam got by two years ago on being a decent bloke, setting up a barrel of Guinness in the team room and leaving a strong European dozen to do their stuff on the course.

With Europe carrying such strong momentum on the back of three consecutive victories and bringing the fancied team to Valhalla, Faldo could probably get away with being similarly laid-back, but that is not in his nature, making the idea of his captaincy so fascinating. He wants to win more desperately than just about any British sportsman ever born, which is why we even questioned what the motive was behind some tomfoolery on the 13th tee during practice yesterday.

As he waited for some of his players to come through, Faldo swung at and deliberately missed a few tee-shots and then, to cheers, hit a full driver that blooped the ball about 60 yards forward. Was Faldo simply having a laugh or was he trying to win over the American public as part of a calculated strategy? “I know what they [the Europeans] are trying to do,” Paul Azinger, the United States captain, said, having clearly made up his own mind.

Faldo’s stature, and his pride, ensure that he will be at the heart of the story whatever happens in Kentucky. Consider for a moment who is going to be getting the blame if Europe are the unexpected losers. Clue: it is not Robert Karlsson.

Faldo is the focus and he knew it even before he put his stamp of youth on the team by controversially selecting Ian Poulter, 32, ahead of Darren Clarke, 40. “I love being mother hen to this lot,” as he said yesterday at a media conference that went smoothly enough except for the one, tense moment when he was asked if he may be a liability because his personality could overshadow the team.

The eyes narrowed into the sort of look he might once have given to a photographer clicking on his back-swing. Or an ex-wife taking a nine-iron to his Porsche.

“I am very confident I won’t damage the team,” he said, and just to make sure we had got the message, he repeated himself. “I think the way I’ve been talking right now, I am showing that there isn’t . . . that the team is formulating with these guys. I’m the quiet one in the team room right now.”

If that seemed fanciful, there was supporting evidence. When he led his players on to the 1st tee to prepare them for a nerve-jangling Friday, it was not only Faldo’s voice that could be heard. He declared himself thrilled that Sergio GarcÍa, Lee Westwood and Padraig Harrington had spoken up uninvited.

“It was all about sharing experiences, about letting those who haven’t been here before know that everyone will be feeling those same butterflies on Friday morning,” Westwood said.

“It went a lot further than I expected,” Faldo added. “It was my idea to go down. I was very big on visualisation and you can then take that straight to the range. But the guys, we really had a good little chat and that was really productive. The team are really tight together.”

Yesterday a press aide referred to him so often as “Captain Nick Faldo” that it began to sound like a military title, but he is evidently striving to play the softer role, to be the man who admits in his autobiography to “crying for hours” when his daughter gurgled at him one afternoon at home.

He may share instincts with Fabio Capello - players locked in rooms, speak when you are spoken to, punctuality to the second - but Faldo is trying to be cuddly. “Even the wives are joining in,” he said. “It’s really great. As Europe has always proved, the team spirit is instantly there.”

Seeking to release the tension of the week, Faldo took the team on a private visit to the Muhammad Ali Centre last night. But his brain will have been elsewhere. “I get thoughts at 3 o’clock in the morning,” he said. “But I’m loving it. I’m just going to be on hyperdrive until I collapse.”

He is working out player pairings - “it was like a Rubik’s Cube when I looked at it” - and he is preparing speeches. He has brought his own sports psychologist, Kjell Enhager. “It will be won and lost in the mind,” Faldo said, although it is not clear whether the Swede is serving the whole team or advising only Faldo.

The captaincy is a role that brought on shingles for Mark James and made Woosnam lose sleep, particularly when he was required to make a public speech. But aside from the requirement to face the media every day, Faldo appears to be loving it, that sense of being in charge.